Description:

This course will focus on the analysis of film as a social and ideological practice in Africa. It will provide an interdisciplinary look at the development of African cinema from its inception in the 1960s to the present. In looking at this period, we will move from the upheavals of late colonialism to recent sociopolitical crises. It will examine the impact of the appropriation of the camera by Africans and the changes in various modes of representations. We will examine major political disturbances taking place in Africa and determine the role of films not only as entertainment but as a tool for social transformation. At the end of this course, students should be able to determine the specificities of an African film language and clearly determine the traits common to the films studied. We will determine how cultural and political identities are constructed through issues like (post)colonialism, orality, gender, sexuality, tradition and modernity.